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Uber starts in Uganda to add fourth sub-Saharan Africa market

Uber Technologies Inc. started services in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on Thursday, adding a fourth sub-Saharan African market for the rapidly-expanding ride-hailing company.

Kampala is the seventh sub-Saharan African city to start the Uber service, following Nigeria’s Lagos, Nairobi in Kenya and four South African cities. The U.S. company will start operations in two further countries in the region within a month, Alon Lits, the general manager of Uber Africa, told reporters in the Ugandan capital.

“We are inspired by the city’s rapidly developing infrastructure,” Lits said. The company “looks forward to giving people in the city an affordable, easy and flexible choice to move around the city safely and reliably.”

Uber has signed up “hundreds” of drivers in Kampala to work with the company, which allows passengers to summon cars using a smartphone app, Lits said. The next two countries will be Ghana and Tanzania, Lits said in an interview earlier this year.

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